CMLL Leyendas shows tonight, Elite announces return

Tonight’s CMLL show will be the favorite of some people, and the least favorite of others. It’s a Legends show, bringing back stars of the 90s, 80s, and 70s for one night. Some of the people who will be wrestling were hall of fame stars in their day, and really have no business doing professional athletics in this day. CMLL’s hoping the nostalgia will overpower the poor quality of wrestling in some of the matches. That only works if you grew up following these wrestlers (and are in your 30s, 40s, 50s or older now.) If you’re a newer fan, or not a fan of some of these guys, you might just see old men moving poorly. There are good matches on this card, but it’s not a lineup for everyone. It still might draw those people who only come to Arena Mexico a handful of times a year.

The main event is Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (57), Dos Caras (66), and VIllano IV (52) versus Canek (65), Cien Caras (68), Mascara 2000 (59). The luchadors and promotions were smart in limiting what and how long they put these guys out there last year, but it still was a bad main event with many of the same people. This would be a contender for the worst major match in Mexico if not for Copa TripleMania & the Reina de Reinas match -even then, it’s got a shot. Villano is the youngest guy but not particular mobile, Mascara 2000 hasn’t looked good in his infrequent CMLL appearances and the others probably shouldn’t be doing more than waving at the crowd at this point. People keep paying them to work so they’ll keep working, but it won’t look good.

The semimain should be much better. The Guerreros Laguneros take on the odd trio of Volador, Rush and Dragon Lee in what looks like a strong match on paper. It might be a meaningful one, with Rush continuing to recruit Volador for Los Ingobernables, while also teaming with his brother.

The fourth match is a mix of guys who can still do something, guys who used to be something, and guys who are Octagon. Blue Panther, Mano Negra and Octagon take on Fuerza Guerrera, Negro Casas and Satanico, which should at least get the crowd to react even if they’re not doing much. The third match is the most intriguing match, as llave maestros Black Terry & Virus face Solar & Super Astro. It’s a kind of style not done normally, but one this particular crowd might be into, and is the most interesting use of the legends format.

The second match is another featuring regular CMLL stars, with the Panther kids teaming with Guerrero Maya to take on Sagrado, Misterioso & Hechicero. This should be good, but I believe we’ve seen the Panthers take on Misterioso & Sagrado about 90 times already this year. (My stats say it’s only 14, I have trouble believing it.) The open has Trio Fantasia taking on Los Diabolicos and Rocky Santana. Gallego & Angel Mortal haven’t been CMLL regulars since about 1989, so they’re going far back (and it’s really kind of an old AAA act versus a really old AWWA act.) Super Raton feuds with the others on indie shows, so maybe be alert for a breakup. The rudos still regularly work indies and probably will be in better shape than most, but this opener has a chance of being as bad as the main event.

There’s a lot of promotion for this show, with the legends doing TV and other media appearances. These guys aren’t really much of draws on indie shows at this point, but a one nigh return to Arena Mexico is still meaningful and I’d expected a bigger than usual (if older skewing) crowd than usual.

The show will air at 8:30pm on ClaroSports and their Facebook page, and be available to watch on VOD on CMLL’s YouTube channel after the fact.

Rey Cometa & Esfinge are headed to Texas to work for Ring of Honor tonight. They wrestle The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara) tonight in San Antonio, and challenge the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) for the ROH Tag Team Titles tomorrow in Dallas. They’re likely to go one and one. These shows will probably be released as VOD for $15 sometime later on.

I’ve read people mention ROH’s also announced Flip Gordon will be teaming with two two be revealed CMLL wrestlers for their Final Battle show, and I think that’s right, but I can’t find anything on ROH’s website to link here. Maybe it was TV thing.

ELITE officially announced they were returning soon late last night. Blue Demon, Cibernetico, Zorro, Fresero, Karonte and Argos are among those who’ve posted the graphic on the return, which lists no return date or location but does brand it as Street Lucha Libre. (When you’re no longer running big arenas, you go with the idea that you mean to be small.) As mentioned before, they’re running on 12/09 in Arena Naucalpan. My impression is that’s not the first function they’re planning on running, and more details should be coming soon.

Tinieblas Jr.’s FULL promotion may be working with ELITE. Tinieblas has often said he’s close to getting TV for his own group (and has gotten it at times), and says in this interview his show this Saturday will be taped for something to be announced. He also says his promotion is in discussion with ELITE to work together. A lot of that talent listed up there for ELITE are the people who frequently work for FULL; the names announced so far as the same batch of indie people who seem to be used on all of these shows, and are known but not especially exciting.

IWL, who’s last show was in 2014, announced they were also returning. Their show is on Christmas Day in Mexico State. Many of the wrestling, including the people who seemed to be running the promotion, seem to be part of the Lucha Libre Boom promotion nowadays. I wonder if this will just be that sort of show with a different name, or new people.